Kenner sewage lift station might be vulnerable to flooding

Kenner has spent almost $1 million building a sewage lift station with its electrical cabinet at ground level, leaving it vulnerable to flooding.

Matthew Hinton, The Times-PicayuneKenner City Council member Joseph A. "Joe" Stagni listens to the clanging sound metal sewer covers make at 33rd and Connecticut streets in Kenner Monday, September 19, 2011. Contractors put an electrical control box, located behind the fence, for the sewer system only eight inches off the ground, making it susceptible to flooding.

City Councilman Joe Stagni said the electrical panel is below the area's base flood elevation, which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency's minimum height at which structures must be built. Kenner required owners of "substantially damaged" houses to elevate their residences at least to base flood elevation after Hurricane Katrina.

Now some of those same homeowners in the Highway Park and Greenlawn Terrace subdivisions could be saddled with backed-up toilets and sinks for weeks if high water ruins the lift station's controls, Stagni said.

"We've just made it possible that that critical service might not be available during the time of a serious flood," said Stagni, whose district includes the site at 33rd Street and Connecticut Avenue.

The issue arose during the City Council meeting last week. Chief administrative officer Mike Quigley asked Rob Delaune of Digital Engineering, the consulting firm overseeing Kenner's $60 million sewerage improvement program, to respond to critics.

Delaune said the site is restricted on all four sides and that elevating the control panel would have left insufficient room to build stairs to access the panel. Building the station elsewhere would have cost five times as much money, he said.

"We understand the constraints of the area, the site, and we're not happy with it," Quigley said, adding that the the city has many sewer needs and in spite of the site's limitations officials made a prudent decision to keep the station at the same location.

Delaune said there have been several significant rains since the station has been finished and the panel hasn't flooded.

Reddy said the electrical instrumentation box within the cabinet can be raised if BFM's survey shows it is necessary, but Stagni and Highway Park resident Jack Zewe said that if any water gets inside it could damage the control panel.

Zewe, a licensed electrician for 40 years, called the project a "train wreck." He made a formal complaint to FEMA about that lift station, as well as five others in Kenner, that he said were built below the base flood elevation.

One is the West Stanford and West Loyola station, in Councilman Kent Denapolis' district. Denapolis said he is going to request a survey on that station, along with all the stations in the city, to determine their relation to base flood elevation.

At Thursday's meeting, the council approved a 15 percent increase in the cost of the 33rd and Connecticut lift station, bringing the total to $944,294, and declared the job complete.